25. Ford
CHAPTER 25
Ford
I’ve just started the coffee when I hear knocking on Harrison’s back kitchen door.
I frown and glance down the hall. I heard someone get up and go into the bathroom, but I’m not sure who it is.
Do I answer the door at Harrison’s?
There is a ninety percent chance that I’ll know whoever it is. But explaining why I had a sleepover at Harrison’s—which is obvious, considering I’m wearing my sweatpants and a T-shirt, my hair is still mussed from bed, I haven’t shaved, and…
I sigh as the knock sounds again. It’s nine a.m. and my car is out front. Everyone here knows my car. Hell, everyone in this town knows what brand of cold medicine I prefer when I’m sick, how much I paid for my car, and that I cheated on a chemistry test junior year of high school.
I’ll never live that down.
So everyone will know soon enough that I spent the night at Harrison’s. Might as well get it over with.
I pull the back door open and am nearly plowed over by Harrison’s father, Bill.
Followed immediately by my father.
“Dad?”
“Morning, son!” my father greets, pulling me into a one-armed hug.
Bill hands me a plate. It’s filled with muffins. “You baked for us?” I ask him.
Bill’s a fantastic baker. It’s been one of his hobbies since he retired. That and frisbee golf. And regular golf.
My father’s hobbies since he retired—because he couldn’t handle Bill being retired and having fun free time without him—include canning pickles, canning jam, making his own salsa, frisbee golf, and regular golf.
Judging by how they’re dressed this morning, they’re heading out for regular golf.
“I did,” Bill says. “I hope I made enough. There are only four of you, right?”
He and my dad both laugh as if that’s the funniest thing they’ve heard in days.
I roll my eyes. Now I know why they’re here.
“Mom and Daphne sent you?” I set the plate on the counter and cross to the coffee maker, grabbing the first cup and not offering it to our ‘guests’. But I put another cup on the little platform and add a new pod, then start a new mug brewing.
“Well, they had to go to work,” dad says.
“And we were heading out to golf,” Bill says. “So she figured we should stop by and…” He looks at my dad. “What were the words?”
“What were what words?” Harrison strolls into the kitchen, pulling a T-shirt on, his hair wet.
It must have been him in the shower. Thank God. Our dads are a lot, even with both of us handling them, but Harrison can match their energy a little better than I can. Especially pre-coffee.
“Your mom said, ‘Tell those boys that parading their new girlfriends around at the cafe and all along the boardwalk and even at Raw, but not bringing them over to meet us is unacceptable and we will be coming over for dinner’,” my dad recites. “She said she’d really like Harrison to make fajitas.”
I open my mouth to respond, but Bill interjects, “Girlfriends? I thought Harrison had a boyfriend? Isn’t that what Daphne said Mabel said? Or maybe it was Britney?”
My dad turns to him—instead of to the two other people in the room who would actually know the answer to the question—and says, “But Travis said Harrison was playing games and going on rides with a beautiful blonde. And that they got frisky on the Ferris wheel.”
I shoot Harrison a look. He grins at me as he snags a muffin from the plate and takes a big bite, clearly unconcerned about the inaccurate gossip.
Except that it is, actually, accurate.
I sigh.
“But Bruce was at Raw and he said they came in with two other people. I swore one was a man and one was a woman,” Bill says.
“But Mabel said Ford was dating the blonde,” my dad says.
Bill nods. “Yeah, he did.” He finally looks at his son. “Is your boyfriend blonde?”
Harrison shakes his head as he chews, then swallows. “Nope. Dark hair.”
“So who’s the blonde?” Bill asks.
Harrison points his muffin at me. “Ford’s girlfriend.”
“She’s not officially my—” I start.
“Was Travis drunk while he was running the Ferris wheel?” my dad asks, looking alarmed.
Harrison grins. “Nope.”
“But he said you and the blonde rode together, you paid him to get you stuck at the top, and you had your hand under her skirt,” Dad says to Harrison.
Harrison nods. “Ivy. She’s awesome. Very sweet. Fun. Beautiful.”
My dad looks at me. Then takes in my bed head, then the coffee cup I’m holding, then my bare feet. Then he smiles. “Oh.”
I quirk a brow, but Bill asks, “What?” before I can.
“The gossips got it wrong,” Dad says, seeming pleased by that. “There’s just one girl. They’re sharing her.”
Bill looks at me, then to Harrison. “Oh.” He shrugs. “That makes sense.”
They are not scandalized. Or concerned. Seemingly.
Bill crosses to the coffee pot and grabs the freshly brewed cup.
“Start me one,” Dad says, settling on a stool at the breakfast bar. “So,” he says to me. “You need to bring Ivy to the house, you realize.”
I’m resigned to the ridiculousness at this point. “Yes, I realize that.”
“What about Liam?” Harrison asks, grabbing another muffin.
“Who’s Liam?” Bill asks.
I lean back against the counter, settling in. See? Harrison matches their energy.
“Liam is Ivy’s boyfriend,” Harrison tells them.
My dad sits up straighter. Bill turns.
“What?” they ask at the same time.
Harrison just nods. “Ivy and Liam are dating.”
“And Harrison is in love with Liam,” I add, lifting my mug in a little salute.
Harrison nods again. “Right. The dark-haired guy with us at the cafe, on the boardwalk, and at Raw. And Ford is falling in love with Ivy. And I really like her too.”
Bill frowns. “So you’re sleeping with…Liam.” He looks very confused. “But you’re—” He looks at me. “Sleeping with Ivy?”
Harrison and I look at one another, grin, and then nod. “Right,” we say simultaneously.
“But Liam and Ivy are sleeping together?” my dad asks.
“Yes. And Harrison has slept with Ivy too,” I say.
Bill and my dad exchange a look.
Then they both start grinning.
“Finally,” Bill says.
“Thank goodness,” my dad agrees.
Harrison and I frown. “Finally?” I ask.
“Thank goodness we’re both sleeping with Liam and Ivy?” Harrison asks. “That’s kind of an extreme reaction, considering you don’t even know them. They could be psychopaths.”
They ignore that.
“Thank goodness you two are finally together,” my dad says. He crosses to me and pulls me into a hug. “You know we’ve hoped for this for so long.”
Oh. This.
Again.
When Harrison came out to our families, both at once over brunch one Sunday by the way, they immediately started hoping for the same from me and that Harrison and I would be a couple forever.
I pull back. “Sorry Dad, I’m still totally straight.”
He looks so disappointed, I actually feel bad.
“Are you sure ?” Bill asks. Not for the first time.
I nod. “I am. But the four of us are…” I look at Harrison. He gives me an encouraging smile. “We’ve got something special. We just kind of fit really well together and Harrison and I are hoping that we can convince Ivy and Liam to make this a permanent situation.”
“A polycule,” my dad says.
I give him a surprised, but pleased, look. “Yes. How do you know about polycules?”
He scoffs. “I don’t just play golf all day, you know.”
Harrison snorts.
My dad grins. “I read ,” he says. “I haven’t participated in a polycule myself, but I know what they are.”
I laugh. “Well, great. Then you can explain it to mom.”
“Your brilliant pediatrician mother?” he asks. “I think she’ll be able to keep up.”
I nod. “You’re right.”
“And we can keep hoping that you and Harrison…” Bill says, trailing off suggestively.
Harrison shakes his head and throws an arm around his dad’s shoulders. “If Ford and I are in a committed relationship with Liam and Ivy, then you’ll have everything you want out of wanting us to be together. Us living together, all the family occasions, grandkids.”
I straighten quickly. So do Bill and my dad.
“Kids?” we all say at once.
Harrison looks at us like we’re all very slow. “Of course. Eventually. Somehow.” He gives me a questioning look. “Right?”
For fuck’s sake. This is so Harrison’s style. We have been doing ‘this thing’ with Ivy and Liam for two days.
But…
I can’t say no. That would actually be the dream situation.
Of course, we haven’t even talked to Liam and Ivy about our actual feelings. Or about them staying. Or about…anything other than fucking while they’re here.
I sigh. I am in love with her, and I do want them to stay. This is Harrison and our fathers. I’m not going to lie and say I don’t want those things.
I shrug. “Sure. Maybe. Eventually.”
Our dads are grinning.
“Daphne is going to be thrilled ,” Bill says.
My dad is nodding. “And you know they’re going to show up on this porch tonight. So, fajitas . I’ll bring a few kinds of salsa.”
“No!” I say quickly.
My dad looks mildly insulted.
Harrison, thankfully, jumps in. “Jesus, we’re trying to get Liam and Ivy to fall in love with us. And this town.”
“We are offended that you think meeting our family would be a detriment to that,” Bill says haughtily.
A beat passes, then we all start laughing.
Okay, maybe detriment is a strong word, but it would be overwhelming for them.
It’s not as if they’d be simply meeting our parents. Between the two of us, we’re related to most of the town. And our families not only get along within our family units, but they also like each other . Our dads are best friends, our moms are very close, our aunts, our grandmothers…
“Okay, listen,” I say as an idea occurs. “Tell mom and Daphne to plan a bonfire for tonight. That way we can have everyone show up at the beach and it will just seem like a party, a town event. Liam and Ivy don’t have to know that it’s all family. They don’t have to know they’re the reason for it. Just have everyone come down and be cool about it.”
Bill nods. “Great idea.”
“Agreed,” Dad says. “Except for the cool part. I don’t think they can all pull that off.”
Yeah, I’m pretty sure he’s right.
But maybe Liam and Ivy will think the town of Honeysuckle Harbor is just very, very friendly. And nosy. And maybe they’ll think it’s quirky that a tiny coastal town in South Carolina happens to know a lot about polycules. Because I’m certain that piece of information is going to get passed around with the invitation and the search engines are going to be humming before tonight.